Well, I am enjoying myself again here, but life is changing quite a bit. For starters, Nadia has been transferred to São Vicente, so I am living alone now. It’s a really, really long story, but in short, a single individual on Boa Vista managed to make things difficult enough for her that Peace Corps and CV’s Ministry of Education saw fit to move her. It’s shitty for her obviously, because she had a life and friends here, not to mention a boyfriend. And it’s shitty for me, because I liked living with Nadia. I speak so much less English on a day to day basis already, and the house is too quiet for my tastes. And I don't think the neighbors are enjoying the loud music I now play for several hours a day to make up for it.

On the other hand, some things are looking up. The wind picked up big time this week, so that promises 6 months of great windsurfing. Tony and Spela, the Slovenians from last year, aren’t coming back this year, but a different guy, Sebastian, is managing the club. I went snorkelling with him and Moises a couple weekends ago, and they showed me a great spot out by the islet with a ton of fish. There’s a little reef drop-off that is filled with grouper, morays, and other delicious things. I tried to go buy a speargun, but the guy here wanted 27.000 escudos (~$300) for one. I’ll try and get one elsewhere.

Kyle was here this last weekend, which always results in some crazy things happening. We mostly cooked, ate, and drank. First there was Thanksgiving, which was actually pretty successful. Shon, Betty, and Tânia came over, and I invited François and Moises, although Moises couldn’t make it and François seems to have just sort of forgotten. Oh well. In place of a turkey, I roasted 4 little chickens (after brining them all day with a lot of rosemary) with vegetables, made some awesome mashed potatoes, and baked homemade bread and an apple tart. The tart burned on the bottom because I am an asshole who drank too much wine and put it too low in the oven, but the apples and the rest of the crust were delicious. The bread was absolutely excellent as well, even though it was an experiment in a different method of baking. I think I could have improved on nearly everything, but it was also a first for nearly everything, too. So no complaints. The next day, we put together some ridiculously good pizza. We made an approximation of buffalo chicken pizza, a garlic mashed potato pizza, bread sticks, and then a more normal pizza, too. Those two meals inspired creative leftover meals for about 4 days. He was supposed to go home on Sunday, but TACV cancelled his flight twice, and he stayed until Tuesday morning. On Monday night, we had nothing to do, so we ended up sitting at a bar for about 5 hours, drinking whiskey and messing with the waitresses. They liked us, and we ended up going to their house at like 2 am, but then going home shortly afterwards. The whole event is really pretty blurry.

Anyway, at the moment, Shon and I are planning for World AIDS Day and International Volunteer Day more or less simultaneously. WAD is basically almost put together, with minimal contribution on my part, but we just remembered about IVD two days ago, and it’s Dec 5. So I think it’ll be a small thing. Ah well.

And now I have to go look at the high school’s computer classroom and then perhaps yell at the guy who is supposed to be delivering my water, but keeps not doing it.

I can't believe I didn't get to watch the Colts/Pats game. Seriously. It's pretty upsetting. Especially since we won. I am currently trying to stream highlights. It is not going well.

So I still suck at keeping this thing updated. I'm going to try and get better at it, as I plan on doing some more blogging after Peace Corps service, as I adventure around the world a bit. More on that as details pull themselves together...

I guess the reason I haven't been keeping it up to date is because not much has been happening. Highlights of the last month include:

-The new airport opened up on the 31st. International flights don't start for a few weeks still, but eventually there will be flights to Italy 3 times a week and once or twice to London. Not bad, huh? I think I can expect an influx of English speaking tourists in the future, which means I already know I am doomed to teach many more English classes. Ugh.

-I went to João Galego twice this week to hang out with Nilton (Nadia's boyfriend) and his buddies. Once was for a BBQ on Thursday, and then I was there on Saturday for another BBQ, this time for Nilton's birthday. They're a cool bunch of guys, though I will say that it is difficult to get yourself "in" with a bunch of guys who have been tight friends for 25 or 30 years. Not that they are exclusive, but it's tough to get the thread of the conversation, especially when it's in rapid, drunk Creole. Still. Fun times.

-No water. Nadia and I managed to use our reserves, and our neighbor forgot to come by to refill our barrels. Nothing had come from our taps in weeks, and more like 2 months since we had gotten anything resembling pressure. In any event, we saw a water truck putting a hose up to our roof, so I wandered up there to see what was going on (because we certainly weren't getting anything from up there), and it turns out that the landlord has installed individual tanks for each apartment. This is after he has been telling us for weeks that they haven't managed to arrange a water contract yet. Which is clearly true, though he never once mentioned that we had our own tank now and could in fact get it filled on our own. In any event, I got the water guy to give us the remainers of the tonelada of water that he had been filling from, but still nothing came to our apartment. Apparently, our pipes are blocked. Awesome! Fortunately, our neighbor dropped by with his truck, so we got 3/4 of a bedon of water, which is enough to last us a while. Yeah that's right, 75 liters of water can last me and Nadia most of the week. We are efficient if nothing else. Anyway, the point to take away from this (other than that I didn't shower for 4 days) is that communication is not always, or ever, clear. It is generally expected that you will find out about something, although if you were to ask someone how, they would have no response. Things are not usually advertised here, except maybe on the radio to which I never listen, and word of mouth is everything. Which may be fine, if you are overhearing a lot of conversation. But no matter how good my Creole gets, I am not going to be overhearing conversation on the street, unless I am intentionally eavesdropping. Thus, I miss out on little things like "we installed a tank for you on the roof."

-I've been reading a bunch more lately. I have decided that I am done with fiddling with computers and watching DVDs in my house. Books are better. I'm most of the way done with The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin. He goes to Australia to learn about Aboriginal Dreaming tracks, which crisscross the continent all over. It's pretty good, and definitely makes me itch to get out and do some exploring.

-I need a vacation. Italy is in about 8 weeks, and it couldn't come fast enough. I've been getting burned out on life lately. I need a good project to commit myself to. My software class ends tomorrow and my English class is done, except for some test correcting today. Afterwards, I won't have to develop any new courses. I've got 6 computer courses and 3 English ones planned out, including manuals and outlines, which should pretty much leave me in good shape for all future material. So now what?

-I am in terrible physical shape. Miserable. I have lost nearly all upper body strength, my legs are twiggy, and my stomach is getting soft. Either my body is just going to be another sacrifice to the Peace Corps, or I need to figure something out já.

Ok. Time to really seriously start my week.

We threw a party last Saturday. Mexican themed-ish. It wasn't huge, just a dozen friends or so, mostly from work, plus Shon's brother and sister, as well as my friend Walter, who has been fiending Mexican food for like a year. Apparently he had tacos once in Praia and loved it. Nadia and I put it together at the last minute, because Boas Compras (the biggest store on the island) randomly got a shitload of ground beef. Like most things around here, it comes and goes at random. So Nadia unexpectedly bought 2.4 kg of it, and we tacoed it up. Nadia made beef and tortillas, and I made some spanish rice and black beans. Everyone else brought booze. So we powered through a couple cases of beer, a bit of ponche, and most of a bottle of tequila. Most people had never had tequila, except of course Walter who refused to drink any for the same reason that most people stay away from tequila (people tend to lose their taste for the stuff after one bad experience, and it seems like everyone has had that one bad night - except me), but I demonstrated the salt-shot-lime method, and it was throughly enjoyed by all. Especially Jonny, who downed at least 7 shots by Shon's count (plus beer and ponche), though he only remembers 4 and thinks we're all lying. In any event, the food was good, and everyone liked it a lot, even the skeptics. And most of us got drunk. Which resulted in...

Verdade ou consequência. If you cannot translate this, go away. Cape Verdeans love this kind of game. Keep in mind that everyone here ranged from 19-30, so this wasn't your average 16 year old's game. That being said, nobody here ever wants to take a damn dare, so I'm pretty sure that I did nearly every one (except Jonny, who was dared to do more tequila shots. what a sport). But the damn bottle kept landing on me, over and over again, and everyone was determined to get me to hook up with Jaqueline. Now, it's no secret among us that I've liked Jaqueline for a while now. I've taken her out before, and I hang out at the café a lot when she is working. Nothing has ever come of it, because she is leaving for São Vicente to go back to school on Thursday, and like a smart girl, she doesn't want to get involved with anyone, etc etc. At least that was my take on it, which turned out to be correct. First, before the game even started, everyone maneuvered us out onto the balcony alone for about half an hour, but she wouldn't kiss me, for pretty much exactly the reasons that I thought. And once we were back inside and the game was on, we were primo targets. First she was forced to admit that she does, in fact, like me (pleased), and then I was forced to do all sorts of ridiculous shit, such as a declaration of love for her, answering all sorts of uncomfortable questions, etc. Fortunately, I had enough to drink that I wasn't feeling shy about it at all, so no embarassment on my part. In any event, she still wouldn't really kiss me in front of everyone, but I settled for a peck at the end of the night. Could be worse. But it was a pretty good party overall, and people stuck around until about 1 am. Half the people don't live in Vila and another quarter had babies at home, which makes all-nighters kind of impossible.

I'll put some pics up on facebook when I get them from Nadia.

Anyway, I'm on the hunt for a new project now. I've got one more advanced class coming up next week, which will last two weeks. After that, I'm going to restart my standard courses, with the new addition of a PowerPoint class. But that's really only like 10 hours a week, so I need something else big to do. Options: attempt to interest the câmara in networking the building. I may drop in there later this week and try to gauge the interest level. It's been tried once before, and met a lukewarm reception. But we are now one of the wealthiest câmaras in the country, and one of the last that still has ancient computers and no network. So we'll see.

Next option: try and get the One Laptop Per Child program to get in Cape Verde. Obviously this is something I would only be able to kick-start. It would be a massive project of several years and encompassing a few million dollars. But if I could get a proposal in and start the coordination, I think it could go a long way. Think about it. Right now OLPC is starting mass production of laptops, but they are having order problems. Apparently Brazil and Nigeria failed to order a million each. I guess OLPC wants to limit orders to a million or more, mainly because they don't have the money or staffing to deal with multiple small orders. But if they are having problems, I don't see why CV shouldn't be able to order 200,000 laptops. We're the perfect fit for the program: a progressive democracy, low corruption, wealthiest country in sub-Saharan Africa, small size, existing national education system. The IT infrastructure already exists, and there is an organization in the government called NOSi (Nucleo Operacional da Sociedade de Informática) that has the leadership capability to oversee the development of such a project. In fact, NOSi's national strategic plan calls for the development of educational programs on a national level, which the OLPC program fulfills in large part. I already emailed a guy in NOSi whom I met last year to see if they even knew about the program (and also to ask about the câmara's potential network). I haven't heard back yet, but that's no surprise. I'll just try again later.

We're also doing another World AIDS Day thing this year. We've already started some planning, so hopefully it all goes down as well as last year.

Lunch time.

Ok. Let’s try to catch up on the last month. Probably they best way would be to admit right off the bat that life has pretty much returned to its normal sleepy ways. I’ve been back in Sal Rei for a month and change, and it comes as no surprise that nothing has changed at all.

Two weeks after coming back here though, I left again, just for a weekend. That weekend was the Festival de Praia Santa Maria over on Sal. It’s a huge two day music festival, second only to Baia das Gatas on São Vicente. So I took the boat over and stayed at Kyle’s house for the weekend. Four other PCVs were supposed to come from Santo Antão and São Nicolau, but Natawnee is the only one that made it. Mike’s boat was cancelled due to lack of passengers, and Jocelyn and Yasmin’s boat was overbooked, causing a near riot in their town that the police had to break up. So it was just the three of us instead of six. But ok.

Maybe I need to elaborate a bit on this boat ride, because… well it was interesting. The boat was late, of course, by about 4 hours. So instead of leaving mid-afternoon, we left after dark. A nice side effect of this is that everyone passed the time by drinking a lot, so a good percentage of the nearly 200 people on board were wasted, and got even more so because of course they sell beer on the boat. Lots of beer. Anyway, I’m ok on boats most of the time, but the sea was rough and it was night, so I was feeling a bit queasy. I chilled in the back with Stravagant and all the windsurfer guys for a while, and then moved myself when the chick next to me almost barfed on my feet. For an island-dwelling people, Cape Verdeans have a serious propensity for seasickness. I’d put the percentage at around 40 for number of people vomiting over the side (or on the floor, on other people, my feet, wherever). Anyway, I was sleepy, so I found a comfy spot by the side and slept for a couple hours. Unfortunately, my comfy spot included some sort of foul dead fish liquid that ended up soaking through my clothing and my backpack, leaving all my clothing for the weekend smelling like… I can’t even describe it. Fucking awful though. I actually had to throw out my belt because the smell wouldn’t leave even after soaking it in bleached water for a night. Anyway, we got to Sal at around midnight and I caught a ride into Espargos, for the low price of whatever change I had in my pocket because the driver didn’t want to deal with finding change for my 1000 escudo bill (1000 escudos = $10-ish. A lack of change is a chronic problem in this country).

Anyway, we passed most of Saturday lounging around and being lazy because we had to reserve energy for the night. Festivals here don’t even start until midnight most of the time. But we went to Santa Maria in the late afternoon to find our hotel room and get some dinner. Which brings me to two side notes. One, the câmara furnished us with backstage passes and a hotel room. Well, the room was for Kyle and his colleague Moises, but four can fit almost as easily as two, so we managed. But the backstage passes got us behind the stage where we drank free beer and munched on snacks with the VIPs and musicians. It was awesome. Second side note: We started drinking at noon. This will be impressive shortly. Anyway, the hotel room was small but comfy (HOT SHOWER. AIR CONDITIONING.), but most importantly right on the beach by the boardwalk where the barraca of vendors was set up. And there was a swimming pool, which turned out to be salt water, but cool nonetheless. The stage was set up right on the beach by the water and there was a big crowd from early evening on. The number I heard quoted was 30,000 people, but I don’t know how accurate that is. I could believe it.

So the music started late and it was good. I didn’t know who most of the bands were, but it was still good. A few: Maria da Barros – lives in the US, has a really nice voice, a lot of fun. Mayra Andrade – amazing voice, but mellow music, not so good for a festival, Kassav – everyone else’s favorite except mine; he was ok, but eh… Banda do Pirata – some Brazilians dressed up as pirates and doing lots of dance-y music; weird but lots of fun. Heavy H – famous, good voice, boring music. African Roots – all reggae covers, but pretty entertaining. Youssou N’Dour – The showstopper. He’s the biggest star in Senegal, and he’s been around for ages. Awesome stage presence, huge percussion section, and just all around ridiculously good. Go find his CDs. Seriously. Live if you can. Anyway, Kyle and I wandered around all night, stopping backstage for beer refills and relaxation in between shows. We hung out with a lot of his friends from Sal, and a ton of people from Boa Vista were around. So we drank and danced steadily until around 7 am. So, that’s 19 hours pretty much non-stop. Go us. Day two was basically identical, except that we slept for 4 hours in the middle of the afternoon.

Monday morning, we got up after 2 hours of sleep, went to Espargos, slept for another hour and change, and then I went to Palmeira and got on the boat to go back home. This boat ride was pretty subdued, because everyone was wasted and exhausted, or just hung over. I sat up top this time with Shon and Betty, who were on their way back from a month of vacations on São Vicente and Sal. A girl I know was sitting across from me and probably wins the prize for drunkest person on the boat. After shouting a lot and then eventually flopping over in her seat, she then slid onto the floor, passed out in the aisle between benches, threw up a little, then peed herself. Awesome. People were jumping everywhere to grab their luggage in time to avoid the stream of piss rolling across the floor from her. Nice girl most of the time though.

Which brings me back to Boa Vista. Where I have been lounging around, working, reading, swimming, and generally enjoying my peace and quiet again. More later.

So I'm back on Boa Vista. And really happy to be here. Helping Peace Corps with training wasn't too bad, but as a friend put it, it's often easy to forget that we work with the US government, but we all remembered during PST. Lots of evaluations, meets, forms to fill out, etc etc. Like any large organization. But I'm back on my comfy island, enjoying my life once more. I spent a couple days on Sal afterwards, just to hang out with Kyle and Caryn. I'll be heading back that way via boat for Sal's big music festival in a couple weeks.

Anyway. Very little has changed since I left, which shouldn't be surprising. A couple of Portuguese comp sci students were here for a month teaching some classes as part of a cooperative program between their school and the câmara. I kind of met them, but we didn't really talk much. For some reason, I am shy about my português do Portugal, and yet I will speak with Brazilians with no problem. Weird. But I apparently missed an awesome music festival here as well as a few really great parties. A lot of kids studying outside the country were back for the summer, but now most of them have gone back abroad, so no more good parties for me. I guess I missed the best part of the summer. Damn.

Still, there was one good beach party on Saturday. It was on a beach about 15 minutes walk north of town, where there is basically nothing except sand, water, and one lone Coke kiosk. I heard about it from a friend and wandered over around 11, and was kind of surprised to find that it was already going strong. Normally this stuff doesn't really pick up until 1:30 or so. At first, they wouldn't let me in, because apparently you had to get a wristband from someone or other, and they weren't letting in any more people. But it's all about who you know, so I asked a couple friends of mine, and I got in after a few minutes. I didn't even pay full price, just because I drink at the same bar as the guys who threw the party. Anyway, they had fenced off a part of the beach, set up some drink stands and a DJ booth, and asked everyone to dress in red and white. I don't have anything red, so I had to go just white. I guess it worked out. It was your usual Cape Verdean party: lots of dancing, lots of drinking, lots of pretty girls wearing almost nothing. Plus, it was right on the beach. Unfortunately for me, I got drunk too early and ended up home in bed by 2:30, which was sad. Because the party went until the next afternoon.

Kyle copied me tons of TV shows he downloaded when he was in the US. I now have 3 seasons of Lost, 3 of Arrested Development, and one each of Scrubs and The Office. Plus a bunch of movies. Good, quality entertainment.

Where have I been, why haven't I been online at all, and what have I been doing? In short: Santiago, too busy, training. The more lengthy answer would be...

Having agreed to help out with training the new IT volunteers, I left Boa Vista last month and went straight to Santiago and got right to work. No, not really. I went on a little vacation first. I flew over to Santo Antao and visited Natawnee in Paul for a week. Alli's despidida (going away party) was on the Sunday that I arrived, so I got straight off the boat, met up with a guy also going, and got a ride there. They were late. I could go into lots of details about the fun that we had, but it was like a month ago now, and well... I just don't feel like it. To sum up a few things, we had a party on basically a farm in the middle of nowhere, and then afterwards ended up in a really nice hotel in Ribeira Grande, where we actually got to swim in a real swimming pool, which was almost the best thing to happen to me all month. And then I spent a week basically just hanging around Paul, relaxing and enjoying friendly company.

I didn't really want to leave there, but I got to Santiago 3 weeks ago, and I have been up in Assomada helping out with training. There are 5 new IT volunteers, all of whom are pretty solid. They've all been assigned a site as of yesterday, and I think all of them are pretty happy with their situation. The rough part about training has been that this is the first IT specific training PC/CV has done. We developed the training material from scratch starting months and months ago, but it still is kind of tough to teach something that you have never seen taught. I think I'm managing to do a decent job, but more importantly, I'm trying to lay groundwork for more successful training in the future. Also, I'm not going to harp on anymore about training, because it just makes for boring blog material, and if you haven't stopped reading already, you must really like me.

Assomada had been fun, because I get to hang out with other volunteers whom I otherwise rarely see. But I miss Boa Vista. I miss my ocean and my friends. So next Saturday, I get to go back. And on that note, it is time for a cold shower upstairs (the downstairs shower, with wonderful wonderful hot water, has starting backing up nasty pipe crud that smells like sewage), and then we are apparently going to a discoteca somewhere.

Forgot: Last Friday marked one full year in Cape Verde. Wow.

Fantastic week. No really, the last 7-10 days mark a high point for the last... while. I guess the logical place to start is the festa. Last week was the Festa de Santa Isabel. Santa Isabel has some sort of significance for Sal Rei, because our praça is the Larga Santa Isabel. Beyond that, I don't know what the deal is with that particular saint. But every year on the 4th of July, we throw a hell of a party in her honor.

Festivals in Cape Verde have a pretty special place in everyone's heart (and liver). Every municipality has their dia municipio, which is basically their biggest festival. Rabil, Estância de Baixo, and João Galego each have their own smaller festival, but the dia municipio is the really baller here. I guess this is partly because Boa Vista is technically only one conselho. Life stops totally for this festival. No businesses are open, unless your business is selling beer, or food to drunk people. The câmara spends enormous sums of money to set up a big stage, attract the best musicians they can, and make the whole town look as nice as possible. In Paúl, Natawnee tells me that they spent basically all their money on their town's festa. It attracts the most people to a place, and gives the biggest economic boost of the year. So as you can see, a festa is a phenomenon without parallel in the US, except perhaps big fairs like the Big E or the Durham Fair (oh Durham...). But even then, it's not the same. You can take a small child to the Big E. I don't think you'd want your 5 year old hanging out at this festa at 4 am. Which isn't to say that there aren't children around... But Cape Verdean children are a whole other story.

So my festa experience: In a word, drunk. If I had to throw out another word, it would be "dancing." And if I had the leeway for two more, I'd probably say "grilled chicken." Because that is what I did. I drank beer, ate grilled chicken wings, and danced my ass off. The câmara inaugurated the new palivolente (kind of an all-in-one sports complex, mostly for soccer and basketball) in town, so the music part was there. We also inaugurated two new youth centers, a new children's park, a new square (Praça dos Namorados... that's hot), some new paved roads, and a buttload of other stuff.* They also set a little shantytown on the beach, dubbed the barraca, with stalls to sell food and booze. It was only about 200 feet from the palivolente, so the whole area is just packed with people. Gil Semedo, aka the Cape Verdean Michael Jackson, and Kino Cabral, aka... no, he doesn't have a nickname. Anyway, they both played for two nights in a row, starting a bit past midnight and going until 5:30 or so. I'm not a big fan of Gil's music, to be honest, because he's pretty much straight zouk pop music, but I enjoyed his show a lot. He has really talented backup musicians (great bass player), plus the atmosphere is just so infectious that you can't not dance. Impossible. Kino was even better. I had a blast. Plus, they are both from the south, so not only did they play some funaná, but they spoke badiu. "Nhos sta sabi?!?!" (Are you all great?!?!) For reference, in sanpajud' we would say "Bocês ta sab'?!?!". We don't pronounce our final vowels. So I liked them.

I ended up pairing up with my friend Praça for most of the night. His name is Praça because he reportedly likes to just sit in the praça of João Galego and just talk to everyone who goes by. That's the kind of guy he is. In any event, we were nuts that night, sucking down beers, dancing with every girl we could find, talking to everyone, and just generally tearing shit up. We held strong until about 6 am, when he asked me if I would mind if he found a pequena to go home with. In the most able act of girl-catching I have yet witnessed, he walked up to a girl he clearly knew, said about two sentences into her ear, waved goodbye, and left. HOW DO THEY DO THIS???? He claimed the next day that he left her house after an hour and tried to find me to drink more. I was comforably passed out by then. Still, I lasted longer than a lot of people. When the music ended, I told a friend that it was time for bed, he looked at me like I was nuts. He said, "Não!!! Nu bai pa barraca!" So we went to the barraca. And the drinking continued.

I spent all day on the 4th recovering, except for an excursion with Nadia to eat more, yep, grilled chicken wings. Shon and Betty, our two close friends, made it out that night, so I spent virtually all night with them. Gil and Kino played again, only this time in reverse order. I drank too many beers and danced frenetically again, although perhaps with a smidgen less gusto than the night before. Corp´tava cansot. Right after the music, they had to catch a car back to Estância de Baixo, so they left me. I went over to the barraca and ran into Praça and another friend Nilton there. A fourth showed up, and lo and behold, the party just didn't stop. When I finally made it home with the sun up, I was probably among the last 100 people still up. Good job, Leland.

After two days of recovery, I somehow managed to have a great weekend, too. On Saturday, I chilled on the beach, did some swimming, played chess with François, hung out with the surfer crowd, and generally took it easy. At night, I went to Mazurka, per usual. I was expecting an average night there, or even a not so good night, because I was feeling a bit out of it. But somehow, I found energy. More dancing ensued, and an abnormal number of close friends of mine where all there. Plus, I got roped into dancing the passada several times. Now this is a dance I usually avoid. It's that slow zouk grind that I just can't seem to get down. But somehow, I pulled it off. I danced with a whole bunch of girls, and even got a couple compliments on my dancing! What the fuck?! It must have been a charmed night.

Before Mazurka, I bumped into one of the windsurfers, Ericson, at Pub Makena, one of my preparty bars. He informed me that Sunday would have good wind, so like a champ, I set my alarm for 9:30, hauled my ass out of bed after 4 hours of sleep, and hit the beach. By 10:30, I was on the water. Now, the wind wasn't great. But it was better than it has been: probably 12 knots or so, gusts up to 15 and change. But I took out a 6.2 sq m sail and paired it with a pretty fat board. Small boards and low wind don't mix well, at least not for a guy with only 6 months of experience. But continuing with my freakishly good week, I had a breakthrough day. I managed to pull off things I've been working on for months. I had my feet in the footstraps, harness hooked in, sail pulled low to catch every gust of wind, body way out over the water, and I flew. I rocketed around the bay for over 2 hours, and when I stopped, I didn't even want to. I was just too thirsty, plus I had already formed and torn blisters on both hands. I still haven't mastered the art of jibing (or gybing, depending on who's spelling it), which is turning the board in a fast arc, switching sides, and then flipping the sail over to face the other way. But I did make more progress with it than ever before.

So there. GREAT week.

I should probably also mention the Miss Bubista pageant of the week before as well, because... it's just worth talking about. Bubista is, by the way, how people here pronounce Boa Vista. The pageant is exactly what you would imagine. Ten girls, between 16 and 19, strutted their stuff on stage, and then the crown was announced. Obviously, they were all hot. Obviously, I felt creepy for thinking half of them were hot, because they were only 16 or 17. But the whole thing was just bizarre, in a really entertaining way. The theater was, naturally, packed to the gills with everyone in town. Guys were hooting and catcalling. Girls were hooting and catcalling. Everyone was just really into it. In between each little walk, there was a short performance, usually of music. Some were pretty good. But I've got to mention the rappers.

Now I know I have expressed my feelings on rap culture in Cape Verde. Guys like 50 Cent and Akon have managed to bring basically all that is wrong with American culture to CV, while managing to entirely leave out the positive aspects of rap (which I'm pretty sure Mos Def epitomizes - that man is a genius). And these guys really showed it. The first guy's song had a bit of English in it. And the English he used is pretty expressive of why I think 50 Cent should be drowned for bringing it over here. The chorus, repeated several times, went something like "Fuck dog, yo yo fuck, I don't give a fuck dog, yo yo fuck." I might have gotten a bit of that wrong, but I think the substance of it is clear. The second guy wasn't as bad. A bit of a poseur maybe, but not as bad as the first guy (sporting sagged jeans, a beater, and an inexplicable white towel around his neck, which I am sure he though was pretty gangsta). As soon as he took the stage, the first guy's "gang" started hassling him and hooting. Then both of their gangs started yelling at each other. And then a fight broke out. The offender turned out to be wearing a striking combination of an XXXXL pink t-shirt paired with a large pink winter hat, which I am sure he also thought was pretty god damn gangsta. I cannot express to you how pathetic the whole scene was. I must admit that Nadia and I were both bright red from laughing hysterically, basically since the first "yo fuck dog," but that doesn't mean I wasn't also at least mildly irritated at what I was witnessing. Of course, Cape Verdeans are more than welcome to choose their cultural influences; I will not presume to pretend that my ideas are better. But I think it is wretched to see what is largely a beautiful culture being ruined, all because they think that 50 Cent is really cool. A friend of mine the other day asked me if I had a gun in the US. I told him no, that I don't particularly like guns. He informed me that he thought guns were awesome and he can't wait to get one, so he can kill someone. Clearly, my friend isn't going to kill anyone. He's a really nice kid. But I think his comment illustrates what's going on.

Ok, I'm done.

*This is partly due to the fact that municipal elections are next March. The president and vereadors want to do as much good as they can, partly of course because they just want to do good in the community (I like them), but also because it reflects well on them come election time.

Boa Vista's festival season is upon us. This last weekend was São João, which was (appropriately) in João Galego. Needless to say, the location made it a pain in the ass to get to, but it was still worth it. I went down around 8-ish with Walter and his girlfriend (Walter was a student of mine, but his English was probably too good to be in my class). When we got there, there were a couple hundred people in the Praça, which already pretty much doubles the population of the town. A musician named Tiolino came on around 9 or 10 and was actually really good. I bumped into my friend Shon and we pretty much stuck together all night, drinking beers and wandering around talking to people. At midnight, another live band came on, and by midnight, I mean one-ish (we run on Cape Verde Time). They're called Cabo Verde Show, and have apparently been around since the late 70s. At first I thought they were downright awful, because they sounded pretty much like live zouk. And if you ever want an earful, just ask me how I feel about zouk, a.k.a. the form of music with no actual musical substance whatsoever. Maybe it was the extra beers, maybe I just got used to it, or maybe I was just having too much fun, but after a few songs I started to dig it. So they played three sets and we danced and drank the night away until 5:30 or so. Fortunately, I managed to snag a car with a friend and get back to Vila shortly after 6, because not everyone had the same luck. Tey, one of the surf club guys, told me that none of them were able to get home until 10 or so. Plus there was a rumble. No, seriously. Apparently, João Galego took on Bofareira. This is hilarious, because if João Galego is tiny, Bofareira is less than a speck. It's about 20 houses sitting in the desert. Plus, a fight in Cape Verde usually has very few punches thrown. Instead, everyone throws bottles and rocks. Not kidding. Fully grown men throw rocks at each other like 6 year olds fighting over swings. Anyway, it was a fantastic night. The festa continued on Sunday, but I was too exhausted/hungover to make it the 45 minutes through the desert to get there. I napped a lot though.

What else? I finally set up a date with a Cape Verdean girl last week, only to be stood up, or so I thought. Apparently she stopped by the CEJ when I wasn't here to tell me she couldn't make it, and an anonymous coworker failed to pass on the message. Damn. I'll try again.

I still swim every day. I don't think I am going to like going back to a place without warm ocean water. I'm slowly getting back into respectable shape, though I am still too skinny for my tastes.

I finished my Excel class last night. The tests were pretty decent, with only 3 people failing. I should probably mention that failing means getting less than a 10 out of 20. Yes, being 50% right is considered a good job. But I have a two week break from teaching right now, until the last computer class, plus a chess workshop I set up. Thank god there will be parties next week, because I might get bored otherwise.

No more. Time for a swim.

Today for an exercise, I asked my students to calculate some percentages. None of them knew how.

I am lazy. Not really, but as far as this blog is concerned, I am a piece of crap. Really I've just been too busy to write anything in it. But right now I have my lesson plans done for English and Excel for the next class, and then it's the glorious weekend. So what have I been doing? Fixing computers, teaching classes, and being generally helpful. None of which makes for good blog writing. But some interesting things are afoot.

Two weeks ago I went to Santiago for a week to prepare for the next Pre Service Training, for the new batch of volunteers due to arrive in a few weeks. I went with the assignment of being a training assistant for the 6 new IT volunteers, the idea being that I would assist a professional trainer. But he flaked out, didn't sign his contract, and guess what? Now I'M the trainer for them. This sucks in some ways. One is that it's a lot of work on top of a pretty good pile of work I have already. Another is that I now have to spend a lot more time in Assomada (where the training center will be), at the expense of my projects in BV. I have already had to delay my technical training course twice, and now I have to push it back yet again to September. Also, I need a fucking VACATION, and it's going to be a lot harder now that I'm already spending 5 weeks away from my site. However, I really actually do want to help out with it, and I weirdly find the training work to be interesting and fulfilling. And it will look good on my resumé. Duh. So overall I'm pleased to do it, so long as I get adequate support from the Peace Corps, considering I can't be there in Assomada before training to organize my component. Fortunately, the new Community Development training coordinator seems really with it, so I should be ok. All the volunteers helping out with PST are going to be living together in one big house. It's going to be The Real World: Assomada, if only we had video cameras. Seriously, half a dozen volunteers, plus two staff members, sharing three bedrooms, one shower, and one kitchen? It's going to get crazy, trust me. Incidentally, if any incoming volunteers are reading this, your training is going to be a LOT better than ours was. I'll see you all at the end of July.

On the way home, I got to stop over on Sal for a night to chill with Kyle and Caryn. We spend a few hours in Santa Maria, which is THE resort town in CV. It was cool, but it sucks when everyone greets you with "Ciao! Come stai?" and you have to constantly assert your nationality and convince people that yes, you can in fact speak Creole. Still, I had possibly the best meal I've had in this country, in a restaurant close enough to the water that waves were splashing onto the seat next to me. (oh come on, am I really in the Peace Corps? I don't even believe it any more) And I bought some swanky stuff from Josh Angulo's surf shop. We also went swimming in the salt pools at Pedra da Lume, where the water is so dense, you practically float on the surface. I got hit with a giggle fit when I first got in, and I just kind of drifted around chuckling for twenty minutes. But the real prize of Sal is Espargos. Seriously. People from Santa Maria talk shit about Espargos like it's lame because it's not a beach town and it doesn't have all the wealth and resorts. But the last part is why it's awesome. In Santa Maria, we were three out of hundreds of white people. In Espargos, we were almost the only ones, and no one tried to speak Italian to us. Kyle and Caryn have tons of friends, and we made more over the course of Saturday night. Kyle and I swilled some coffee at midnight-ish (I was running on under 4 hours of sleep) and stayed out dancing at some disco until 5 am. It was fantastic, despite an ugly incident with a pushy guy and a pretty friend of Kyle's. Plus I met a Brazilian guy who looks like a short version of the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Can't beat that.

My coworker Diva had her baby last Friday. Last night was the Sete, literally just Seven. It's a traditional party one week after the baby's birth where all the friends and family come and hang out, drink a bit, dance, and coo over the newborn. It wasn't the first one I've been to, but was definitely the most fun.

Well. That's all. Oh, almost. I'm going to Morocco in December. Rhett backed out of the Ghana vacation to spend some time with his girlfriend, and I asked my parents to meet up with me somewhere. My mom and I both suggested Morocco. Fes, Marrakesh, Rabat, Casablanca, and a trip to the Atlas Mtns if we can. Sounds nice, não é?

Yeah yeah, it's been a while again. Normally, I could say that I don't have anything to write here, because nothing happens much in Boa Vista, but that's actually not the case. First of all, two weekends ago was the windsurfing competition. Ok, I'll start there.

On Friday, a boatload of windsurfers, surfers, and general water enthusiasts arrived from Sal. We had invited teams from Santiago (Praia Baixo) and São Vicente (Mindelo), but they never made it, who knows why. The first disaster came when I wandered through to meet everyone after my last class of the evening, and I found out that François had not arranged food for the competitors and their entourage. So there were 27 starving athletes, as well as some spectators and girlfriends, and all were unhappy about it. By Saturday morning however, he had negotiated some sort of agreement with some local women (including Dona Tuta of the CEJ), and they ended up cooking lunch and dinner for all the survers for the rest of the tournament. The tournament as a whole was a bit disorganized, but overall it went as well as it could. Money was scarce, since the two major sponsors that François was hoping for elected to not give any money at all. Still, we did a slalom, a race around the island, and some kitesurfing events. We weren't able to do freestyle or waveriding for the windsurfers because there were NO waves and we used all the good windy hours for the races. If we had more time, we could have done the sailing regatta we planned, and it goes without saying that with no waves, no surfing happened. So some people were disappointed, but it was a good start. I'm going to try to have more of a hand in organizing it for next year, since François was just too overwhelmed with it this year. We'll start organizing earlier, form a committee, and try to include goodies like a beer sponsor, a DJ, t shirts, and extend it for a week or more to include more events. I'm much more optimistic about it.

This past weekend was the Festival da Santa Cruz in Rabil. I went over there after having dinner with a friend on Friday night, and ended up staying until aroudn 4 am. A funaná band from Santiago called Ferro Gaita played. I had heard the name and music before, but never connected it to their faces, but after they took the stage I recognized them from TV. Nadia went home early because she had a class to teach Saturday morning, and my friend Lucas also took off because he works insane hours all weekend. So I just kind of hung around, attaching myself to random friends until I finally had to go to bed. Hearing funaná live again was spectacular, because Boa Vista just doesn't play much of it. Dancing to funaná is basically just a lot off ass shaking, which makes it way more fun than morna, aka lamest music ever. After a long night like that, I spent most of Saturday doing nothing, except for going for a nice swim in the afternoon. We had a dinner with all the CEJ staff at a nice restaurant in Rabil that night. I love hanging out with my coworkers. Good people, good people. I tried to convince a bunch of them to come to Mazurka, but everyone claimed they were too tired. So I went alone.

I know I've bitched about Mazurka before. And yeah, the music still sucks. But Lucas works there, so when I told him two weeks ago how bad the music is, he told the DJ to play more rap and reggae. And he actually listened. The usual 10 minute good music segment was extended to almost 25 minutes! Exciting shit. But really it's more fun now just because I know more people. There's never any awkward standing there, looking for someone I know. So I've been having a blast. I might start going a lot more often now. This last weekend was just as fun, and my friend Kyle is coming from Sal this weekend, so I'm sure we'll end up there again.

I need to wrap this up so I can get back to work. I've been working unholy hours for the last couple weeks, mainly because my English class is still going on and now I am teaching Word as well. It wouldn't be bad, except that English requires lesson plans and exercises, so I end up spending too much time on it every day. Bleah. Oh well, at least they're learning a bit.

It is completely orange outside. The bruma seca is blowing in off the Sahara again and the air is nasty and dusty.

Internet is kind of back, but electricity has been coming and going in the CEJ's zona. Enjoy a couple entries:

4/23

I’ll start this out the same way I started the other one (below): My whole body is sore. I was windsurfing all day Saturday and Sunday, in high winds and on choppy water. Yesterday in particular was really gusty and tricky to work with. I had to wake up and stretch every muscle in my body this morning. And I really didn’t want to get out of bed. Not because I am particularly tired today (I got about 9 hours of sleep), or that I was dreading work today, but just because bed was nice.

Anyway, the internet is back, finally. My friend on Sal says it’s been back since Friday, but it’s been coming and going. The full story is that some ship dropped their anchor on a fiber optic cable, which happened to be THE cable in Praia that connects us to the rest of the world. Do not even ask me why a) there was only one cable, with no redundant system b) the cable was unprotected c) it was not buried d) it was placed underneath a harbor e) any other questions where the answer would be that CVTelecom is a bunch of morons. But it happened. As it is, right now there is a temporary satellite system set up until they fix the cable. You may or may not know that satellite internet is a LOT slower than a fiber optic cable. So my connection is constantly coming and going, and isn’t much faster than dial up. Oh well. I shouldn’t complain. I’m lucky I even have it.

I’ve mostly just been working this past week. Uninteresting, I know. But with all the classes, plus all the broken computers, I’ve been mostly just planning and teaching, with the odd repair work in between. In the early afternoon, I usually end up going for a swim and reading for a bit. That’s another new thing, the swimming. I’ve only managed to go a couple times, and it’s rough going. I wanted to start doing it in the morning, at 7, but I can’t get myself to get up. The mind is so irrational when it’s half asleep, I manage to convince myself that it’s not worth getting out of bed just to swim. Plus, my swimming form sucks, so I end up tired really quickly, and taking the occasional gulp of saltwater. Well, I will improve.

I went to a baby shower last night, for Diva, the girl I work with. I’d never been to one before, but I’m pretty sure they’re not usually like this. When the time came to give the gifts, Diva had to guess each one individually. She got four tries, and every time she missed a guess, she had to do something that the other person said. For most of it, we just drew on her with lipstick, but she also had to dance around a lot (awkward when you’re 8 months pregnant). Plus there was wine and pontche, which seemed odd for a baby shower. Good times. Doing things with my coworkers is always fun.

Time to correct some tests. Introduction to computers is done, thank all that is holy, and I get a short break from computer classes.

4/16

My whole body is sore. I’ve spent 3 of the last 4 days windsurfing and I am feeling it. On Thursday, I had a meeting with François, which was followed by lunch and surfing. Then I spent basically all day Saturday and Sunday at the wind club. I’ve started using a 125 liter board, which is not tiny, but small enough. I’ve gotten used it to it though, so the next time we have a good strong wind, I’ll try a 115 or so. Unfortunately, the wind is beginning to die down, and it’ll stay calm until the end of the rainy season in October or November. Sad. But the weak wind gave me an excuse to take out a 6.5 sq m sail (I’ve been using a 5.2) yesterday, and I was FLYING. It was awesome. I’d love to be out there again today actually, but there is just too much to do. I think I’ll go for a swim in the afternoon though, so maybe I won’t feel like I got hit by a bus tomorrow.

So I’ve been busy. I started teaching all my new classes last Monday, so I now teach 18 hours a week, which is more or less on par with a high school teacher. Every day I teach a computer class from 10:30 am to noon, then again (same class, different students) from 7:30 to 9 at night. And Mon/Wed/Fri I teach English from 6 to 7. I don’t mind the teaching in and of itself, but the constant stream of requests for computer repairs hasn’t stopped at all, so I feel like I am doing the work of two people right now. Or rather I would be, except that I’ve just been ignoring all repair stuff, except for things I know I can do in 10 minutes or less. People look at me like “What do you mean you don’t have time? I want this FIXED.” But let’s be serious, it’s been broken for months, if not years, because no one else knows how to do it, so why are you pushing it on me today? Hopefully I’ll get my plans a couple weeks ahead on classes this week and have time to step back and do it. Granted, I do in fact have all afternoon I could use to fix computers. But if I did that, I would be working 12 hour days, and they don’t pay me for that. They don’t pay me at all. Ha! I already have to be here from 9 am to 9 pm, so I’ll be damned if I don’t take a 4 hour break in the day to keep my sanity, get some exercise, and run some errands.

But on the plus side, all my classes are going really well. This English class is going a thousand times better than the previous one. Everyone is one the same level, which is basically nothing, so I know what I should be teaching. It’s weird teaching basic English. I never thought about how one would go about doing that, until about two months ago when I decided to offer the class. And the computer classes are going even better. Because I already taught the class once last year, I just use the same lesson plans, but with some improvements. Now that I know what people have a hard time with and what is easy, it’s been going more smoothly. I’m even becoming a decent teacher. Too bad I’ll probably never teach again after Peace Corps.

Speaking of “after Peace Corps,” my friend Kyle threw out a pretty great idea for a COS trip (COS = Close Of Service, i.e. where I’ll go for a nice vacation when this is all done). He really wants to see Brazil. Since I obviously love Brazil, I am all about going. But our friend Caryn is Chilean by birth and studied abroad there, so she might want in on it, too, so we can visit there. And then who knows, throw in Argentina or Peru, plus maybe a stopover somewhere in Central America, and that sounds like a pretty fantastic trip. Now we’ll see how many times we change our minds in between now and then.

Enough writing. Time to try and get something done in the morning so my afternoon will be more relaxed. I’ve also just been informed by François that the reason we have no internet (I’m writing in Word) is because the whole country has been cut off. Apparently a ship dropped anchor right on a fiber optic cable in Praia and bye bye internet for the whole country. That’s what we get for living on islands. And having only one ISP. Who has only one cable

An interesting last week or so. Well, maybe not for you, but I'm going to write about it anyway.

We went to Tarrafal for IST last week. Tarrafal is on the northern part of Santiago, and it's definitely the best beach on that island. We stayed in a hotel that consists mostly of little huts among some palm trees right along the bay (yeah, sometimes this feels like a really nice vacation). Oh yes, and there were monkeys. If I haven't recently expressed my hatred for monkeys, here it is: I hate monkeys. One morning, they all hung around outside the breakfast room and started stealing food from people as they left. Our training director got mugged for a banana, and another monkey went for Nadia's loaf of bread. I smacked it with my folder. Note: smacking a hungry monkey makes it a hungry, angry monkey. (There was one really cute baby monkey at a bar one night that I actually did like a lot. He was kind of a biter, but really fun to play with.) Where was I? Right, IST. I won't kill you with the details, but I'd have to say that it was more or less what I expected. There were some sessions on administrative policy and whatnot that were boring, but probably necessary. The rest was mostly on project design and management, classroom strategies, etc. Some parts were actually quite useful, and just hanging out and talking with other volunteers puts your own work in good perspective.

But of course, there was partying. Lots of it. All night. Every night. Guess what happens when you put 45 Americans who haven't seen each other in 6 months on a nice beach with access to lots of beer? Madness. On the last night, we had a bonfire on the beach, and a few of us walked up into town at around 10 to get some beer. Well, we ended up clearing two (count 'em, 2) grocery stores out of everything they had in their refridgerators. I also forgot how amazingly entertaining some of the other volunteers are. It was like a non-stop comedy show for 5 days. With booze added. There was also a bit of swimming, of the naked-at-midnight variety. And by a bit, I mean a lot. So the point is that it was awesome, and a really good break from Boa Vista. Although, it's worth pointing out that I started missing this place by day 2, and I was immensely pleased to come back on Friday. I've realized just how much I like it here.

I got a couple days of peace and quiet at home, because Nadia stayed on Santiago for a bit longer. I caught up on some sleep, and had a pretty great night out alone on Saturday. It's amazing what happens when you live in a small town and you just go sit on a bar stool for a night. You see everyone. It's awesome. Now, Nadia is back, and we've got a few visitors. Catalina, Michelle, and Adam are all here right now, and Alli and Natawnee will be arriving later today. The plan is lots of beach relaxation, which so far has worked out well. I've been catching up on a lot of work, too.

One nasty little incident is that Catalina and Michelle got robbed on our beach the other day. They were walking together and two guys stepped out of nowhere and took everything they had. I was floored, because I had never heard of anything like this, but apparently these two guys have gotten like ten people in the last month or so. I don't think of the beaches here as dangerous, but I guess there is a price to be paid for rapid development.

Diva is listening to absolutely horrible music right now. Worse than usual. It might be Celine Dion, if I knew anything she's done other than that Titanic song.

Spela, my Slovenian friend, is leaving today, and I am sad. She had a little going away party last night at the wind club, and it was awesome. Every windsurfer around came for it, and we ended up hanging out there with Tey, Moises, and Yohann until almost 1 am. Damn this place is great.

Oh god, it IS Celine Dion. The fucking Titanic song is on now! I am about to stab myself in the heart with the nearest sharp object.

Ok, enough for now.

I guess I should write something, huh.

I can't say I've been up to much lately. I finished up my English class (thank all that is holy), so I don't have anything to teach until April 2nd now, which is nice. It means I get to be home by 6 pm every day. So during the day, I've just been fixing computers and planning lessons for my beginner's English class. On that note...

I'm sick of fixing computers. I mean, I know I came here as an IT volunteer. And that's fine. But as of two weeks ago, I flat out refuse to hold a full time tech job, ever again, in my entire life. Why? Because all of a sudden, the few remaining people on Boa Vista with broken computers are now aware of my presence, and they just keep on piling through the door. It's unreal. I am constantly either fixing a computer, or being asked to fix one. In one sense, I don't mind, because I am the only one who can do it, so it's obviously at least mildly rewarding to help someone out. On the other hand, I hate fixing computers, particularly for people who don't understand anything about them (i.e. most, and that's not just here), and most particularly for people who don't understand that some computers are not fixable and are just broken forever.

I was in Praia this past weekend for a workshop on "Training Design and Evaluation." A training guy from Washington was there, as well as the West Africa regional training person, and they introduced what basically was a new way to approach training design. It was, as we say, mais ou menos. It could have been really good, and in some ways, it was pretty helpful. I honestly and nerdily find the whole topic of training to be pretty interesting, especially in light of the whole Peace Corps goal of sustainable development, which I will not bore you with here. What was not so good about the whole thing is that I can't see much of it coming to light in the near future. With the whole training model being changed this year, it's enough of an experiment that I don't imagine that they will also be trying to throw in another whole batch of new ideas. But I did get to hang out with a whole crew of volunteers and we had a pretty good time, even if it was for 2 short days.

Scary experience: I went windsurfing on Sunday, after getting home at the ass crack of dawn and sleeping for another couple hours. I decided to use a smaller board for the first time, since the winds were pretty high, and it's easier that way. So I grabbed a 119 liter board (contrast this with my previous 155 liter board - huge difference) and my usual sail and headed off. At first, no problems. I wobbled a bit, figured it out, and then crossed the bay 4 times. So far so good. Then I'm not sure what happened, but I fell off at one point on one edge of the bay and couldn't get back up. I kept getting on the board, hauling my sail, and then falling off right as I got a good grip on the boom. The balance on the smaller board was just completely different and I couldn't do it with high winds and rough water. So I fell and fell and fell and drifted the whole time further and further out. Eventually, I was exhausted, out of breath, banged up, and waterlogged. Even worse, I was too far away to swim back and further out than any of the other surfers. So after briefly freaking out, I ended up throwing my sail back across the back of the board and paddling to the nearest anchored yacht, where I tied my board up and flopped exhausted in the dinghy. There was no one on board, except a remarkably cute and friendly cat. So I ended up sitting on the this fucking boat for about 45 minutes until my friend Spela surfed over and waved over a friend on a motorboat to bring me in. So there it was, the first time I've had to be rescued on my board. Yeah, and it was scary as hell drifting out towards the open sea. And of course, everyone at the wind club has been making fun of me, asking me how Brazil was (Brazil being the next place you land if you drift out of the bay). So yeah, next time I am sticking to the shallows until I get a hang of the small board.

Ok that's it. That is honestly the most interesting thing that has happened to me lately. I'm reading Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls, which is surprisingly good. I am very, very relaxed.

Three cool things I've learned in the last 24 hours or so:

1) I am going to Praia twice this month. In addition to IST (which should actually happen this time), I was just told yesterday that I'm going in for a workshop in a couple weeks. It's Peace Corps related but I didn't catch all the details. Someone from each technical sector in Community Development will be there, and I'm holding down IT apparently.

2) We have an ice cream store in Sal Rei now. To those of you blessed with a constant supply of ice cream, just go die. HA, just kidding. But you may not understand what this means. We had ice cream before, but only a couple flavors, and it was expensive and only available in a restaurant. But now we have chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coffee, hazelnut, apple, and lemon sorbet. I also feel I should bring up a point I have made before: I haven't been a junk food person since probably elementary school (excluding the occasional case of the munchies in college). But this place has turned me around. I buy Ruffles like there's no tomorrow, eat chocolate whenever it's available, and now there's ice cream, too. I even drink Coke. Without rum. And still losing weight...

3) We are going to have a watersports championship on Boa Vista. I spoke with François the other day to proofread some stuff in English he had written up, and some of it was about this competition. It will consist of 4 weekends, with the sports chosen based on best conditions. So there will be surfing, bodyboarding, windsurfing, kitesurfing, and boat races. I might actually enter in the windsurf slalom and perhaps freestyle as well. Not that I'll win, but it'll be fun. In any event, I am going to help out with it and see if I can get the CEJ involved as well.

That is all.

Long time, no internet. Actually, I still don’t have any Internet, so I’ll have to post this later. The whole island has been out since last Friday apparently. But I am back on Boa Vista, after 8 fun days of Carnaval and vacation. You’d think I’d feel relaxed and happy and ready to get back into work. But no. Because I all I did for 8 days is party and sleep on hard floors. So I am not rested. And I have a cold. But it was aaaaall worth it.

First, a little something on São Vicente and Santo Antão. Mindelo, which is basically the only settlement of note on São Vicente, is like a small European city. It doesn’t have much more than 50,000 people, so it’s still small enough that you run into the same people all the time. But it’s also big enough that it has real restaurants, shops, and other things that I haven’t seen in 6 months. They also get fruits and vegetables. Even lettuce. Holy shit. Mindelo is also a big shipping port, because it has a large and deep natural harbour. The occasional cruise ship shows up and drops anchor. Oddly enough, Sal Rei used to be the biggest port here and was going to be the capital of the country at one point, until Mindelo started getting more business. Most big buildings have a sort of colonial architecture, and the whole place is very bright and friendly. Right nearby (look at a map) is the island of Santo Antão. The only way to reach it is by ferry boat from Mindelo, since there is no currently running airport there. It is all mountains, and the only airstrip that is built has powerful crosswinds that prevent planes from landing. Smart. Anyway. Santo Antão has a lot of people, and thus a lot of volunteers. The northeastern part of the island actually manages to catch a lot of moisture and is actually green 365 days a year, which is spectacular. Because it is all mountainous, the population of Santo Antão lives in a few ribeiras, again mostly in the northeast. A ribeira is basically just a deep valley cut by millions of years of rainfall, and during the rainy season, they actually turn into legitimate rivers again. The ribeiras grow crops all year, but it’s mostly sugarcane to produce my beloved grog, the ridiculously powerful booze that people drink around here.

On Saturday, Nadia and I arrived with a bunch of other people in Mindelo. We all stayed at our friends’ house, but the first night we didn’t do much. Just got some dinner, had a few drinks, and lounged around the house catching up with one another. Most of us hadn’t seen each other since PST, so there was a lot to say. The next morning, more people arrived, and we wandered around the city a bunch, just sort of exploring things. I can kind of lump most of the next few days together actually: By day, we’d all wander around the city in various groups, constantly bumping into one another and switching off people. All day the streets were packed with people, most of whom were drunk and wearing silly costumes. Most people think of Carnaval costumes as being bright and feathery and fancy (which is also true), but most people were just dressed up as if it were Halloween for a week. There were lots of guys in drag, weird masks, brightly colored wigs, and a lot of random costumes. And several times a day, there were the famous Carnaval parades. Sometimes they were informal, as in a group would just band together and parade through the streets, dancing in costume and banging on drums. Other times it was even less formal, and a bunch of more or less wasted people would stumble through the streets yelling and banging on whatever. But there were also the formal, organized parades that went on for long periods of time, with choreographed dancing, and really, really good drumming troupes. There were one or two a day, except on Tuesday (the big day), which had the three best and longest ones, which were actually judged as part of the whole event. So by day, we enjoyed the spectacle, ate good food, did a bit of shopping, and generally enjoyed ourselves. By night, we’d all get together and go out somewhere for drinking and dancing, etc. On Monday night, we got tickets to a big party at a hotel on the main square in town. There was live music and an unbelievable amount of people. Because it was the post-party for Monday’s big parade, all the dancers were there, dressed up in full costume, so I got more than a few brightly colored feathers in the face, up the nose, etc. I also didn’t care, because I had been drinking since mid afternoon.

I’d like to give more details as to what Carnaval really looked like, but I’d rather just post some pictures. Nadia has some, and I’ll also get some good ones from Natawnee and Kyle, which I diligently forgot to do before leaving.

After Carnaval, I went with Tawnee and Kyle to Paúl to take in a different sort of Cape Verde. The way there is pretty taxing. After the ferry ride, which is only an hour, you then have to grab a hiace to make the journey through the mountains. It takes another hour and change to get to Paúl, most of which is going either up or down and winding along cliff faces that drop hundreds of feet straight down. But once you get up high into the clouds, it starts turning green and stays that way all the way down the ribeira. There are pine forests and grass, with little farms and stone houses perched in the most ridiculous places. People will terrace what looks like basically a cliff, and find ten square meters of farming space to use. Very resourceful. Anyway, the main part of Paúl is Vila das Pombas, where Tawnee and Allie live. Das Pombas is basically one long road of houses that goes by the seaside. Immediately behind one row of houses is the ocean (Allie’s back door opens literally onto the Atlantic. The water used to wash under the door until someone built a retaining wall), and on the other side is the mountains going straight up. There is a second road that goes inland up the ribeira. Paúl is small and rather poor, and has about a 33% unemployment rate, which translates to a lot of people just hanging out around town with nothing to do. But for all that, it’s a cool place. It’s really pretty, and really quiet. And have I mentioned that it’s GREEN? I don’t see much of that color these days. We spent most of the time just relaxing and hanging out. Kyle, Tawnee and I walked a while up the ribeira to go to a restaurant of sorts. There is a German guy who makes his own cheese and grows his own veggies, so we ate a bunch of his cheese, and he smoked some fresh fish. He also produces his own grog, and Kyle and I had a shot of some stuff called ’77,’ as in 77% alcohol. It was not entirely unlike getting punched in the face. But in a good way.

So Friday night, Tawnee threw a party, and by threw a party I mean invited people over to Allie’s for a party. All the folks from Santo Antão came, plus me and Adam (from Calheta on Santiago), though Kyle and crew had already headed back to their respective homes. The party was fun, grilling and drinking and all the usual, but I ended up spending my last few waking hours on Santo Antão taking care of a barfing Natawnee. Ah well. My overnight on Sal was pretty uneventful. We watched Scrubs. Yeah.

Well, the internet is still not back here. I have been informed that DSL is still working in another zona, so it’s not the whole island, but I will be damned if I pay for internet. So this will go up when CVTelecom gets their shit together and gets the CEJ back up.

So, I just spent the last half hour or so browsing other people's Peace Corps blogs in West Africa (yeah, I know, I'm just wasting time on the internet. Give me a break, it's Monday.) , and thinking about how my own experience holds up. I don't really want to do any heavy comparisons, because I think it should be obvious that the kind of service you do and the place you do it shapes your service enormously. But it's wild about how different it really can be. The blogs I was looking at were mostly in Ghana and Togo, mainly because Rhett (PCV at the Escola Técnica in Praia) and I are trying to plan a vacation to Accra and Lomé, for surfing and other beachy goodness. But I got caught up in reading about people's rural experiences, because of how vastly different they are from mine.

People spend time doing agricultural work, volunteering at the hospital with the Red Cross, helping with childcare and midwifery... The kinds of things that I always envisioned Peace Corps volunteers as doing. People talk about their friendly neighbors who come over to help them with tasks that Americans aren't used to: cooking, washing clothes, minor projects around the house. Many don't have electricity and update infrequently when they travel to whatever city happens to be nearby. But overall I guess, the focus is on the basics of life. The projects tend to be organized around developing services that we might take for granted in the US (or Cape Verde), but don't exist in the bush of Togo. A part of me is mildly disappointed that my experience isn't more like this. Maybe I just wanted to rough it a bit more than I am here, but then again, I'd probably sing a different tune if I were actually living in a rural village in the middle of nowhere. I think the bigger issue for me, however, is that it sometimes seems that Boa Vista doesn't really need volunteers. Don't get me wrong: Boa Vista definitely does need us here. But it doesn't always seem that way.

Nadia's service is a bit more straightforward (which isn't to say that she doesn't have her own doubts and tribulations), because there is a serious lack of English teachers here. If she weren't around, classes just wouldn't get taught and a generation would pass through school with no further language training. But as a technology person... Part of it is that for a place to even have a use for an IT volunteer, they have to have already achieved a certain level of development. You've gotta have consistent electricity, infrastructure, education levels, small businesses, etc. Boa Vista has all this. Which is why I feel like a chair warmer sometimes. My chair is exceptionally toasty today, thanks to my ass. Buuuut, then I start to think about the flip side of things.

You know how sometimes, a random offhand comment by somebody will stick in your head forever and ever? Well, during training, we had many representatives from various agencies come and talk to us about development work in Cape Verde. One of them (I think it was a UN guy) was talking about how Cape Verde will soon be removed from the Least Developed Countries list, because the country has hit several benchmarks, indicating great progress. Removal from the LDC means that you immediately lose many benefits and developmental aid. Without being inappropriately POed about it, but clearly bothered, the guy made a remark to the effect of "Why are we being punished for doing well?" Cape Verde consistently makes the most of the development aid it is given, with very little being squandered by corruption or inefficiency. As a result, it is the wealthiest African country, with a booming economy and fewer of the poverty-associated problems associated with continental West Africa. So if Cape Verde does such great things with the money it is given, doesn't it seem perverse to take that money away? The obvious answer is that now there are other countries in need of that money. So what does Cape Verde get? Me, I guess (not a great prize, though my remarkable good looks may be contributing to Boa Vista's overall wellbeing).

The one thing that consistently keeps me optimistic is that I think I still fit into the development model. It's just not in a place that I ever really considered before. Somewhere in between the US and Burkina Faso are a slew of countries that are pulling themselves out of 3rd world status, but need assistance in getting up to speed with the developed world. So I wander along and start showing them how to use Excel spreadsheets to keep track of monthly expenses, and all I ask for in return are free windsurfing lessons. If I can get done the ONE thing that I want to do here, which is to train at least one reasonably competent technician, I can go back to the US (or wherever) feeling good about it.

Ok, did I rant? I might have. Just feeling a bit useless today, as I have no concrete work to do, except plan my English class for tonight, which I really don't want to do. At all.

And I've been practicing using the harness while windsurfing, and I have achieved some awesome speeds in the last couple days. Some awesome crashes have come along with that (explaining the bruises and roadrash on my arms, chest, and shins), but how are you gonna learn how to fly across the bay without flipping headlong over your board a few dozen times?

A few random things:

1) I hate dogs. I've never really felt like that before, but it's undeniable now. I specifically hate their barking. If you could breed a new species of mute puppy, I'd be ok with that. But the dozen or so neighborhood dogs who now routinely wake me up between 4:30 and 5 am with 45 minutes of non-stop yapping have got to go. In my half-asleep daze of confusion and irritation, I sometimes have extended fantasies about how I would kill these dogs. It's usually a baseball bat, though assault rifles sometimes make an appearance.

2) I am bored. I was just chatting with Kyle (fellow IT volunteer on Sal, just north of here), asking what he does with his days. He is in the same boat as me. He teaches some classes, though his are quite small owing to lack of computers, but during the day, there is not always stuff to do. For instance, today I want to come up with a way to revitalize my sagging English class, as well as come up with a schedule for my technician training courses. The problem is that for the former, I need to speak with my counterpart who is on her daily coffee break, and the latter is just not that urgent, plus it involves coordinating with several other people to avoid stepping on toes and interfering with other classes. According to a very useful sheet of paper that PC gave us during training, "feelings of uselessness" are normal during this time of service. But it's not that I feel useless. Ok, maybe it is that I feel useless. It will pass, I guess. At least I now have a plan for 3 more courses to teach, and I feel like my service is going in a positive direction.

3) I love windsurfing. Yeah, I know, I talk about it a lot. But it's my little lifesaver here. On Monday, I finished typing up several course proposals in the morning, looked over the whole package I had assembled, and decided it looked pretty good. So, I took a longer than normal lunch break and went windsurfing (hey, I'm here until 9 pm most nights. I deserve it). And ohhhh man, it was a breakthrough day. I'm using a smaller, lighter board now, as well as a larger sail, and I finally achieved planing. That is when you plant your feet towards the back of the board, throw all your weight backwards, and lean your sail right into the strength of the wind. The result is the tip of your board angling way up out of the water while you skip across the waves, not unlike a speedboat. And it is a phenomenal feeling. Johann and Tony (guys who work at François' place) tell me that I am ready for the harness next time, to provide a little more stability at high speeds.

4) I am ready for vacation. I will be in Mindelo in 10 days. It couldn't come soon enough. I haven't left my 15 mile diameter island in over 4 months. That is the longest I have ever stayed in one place, at least in recent memory.

5) I need a martini.

6) I have so many books to read, and it no way is that bad. I am still working my way through "Freedom at Midnight," and I think I'll tackle "Freakonomics" next.

7) I am increasingly stressed out by news reports from the Middle East. I know I am not alone in this concern, but it really, really bothers me these days. I may have to start learning Arabic. You know where I'm going with that.

So I just got back from the post office, and I feel I need to say something. The post office here is the worst place in the universe. I know you may be thinking "Really? Well, what about prison? Death Valley in the summer? A fire ant nest?" No, I assure you, it's the post office. Generally, if you arrive before 10:30 am, it's not so bad. You can pick up a package or send an envelope in 10 minutes or so. The problem is that they have several services there: regular post office stuff, all CVTelecom stuff (land lines and cell phones), plus Western Union. So there are people there to send stuff, receive stuff, pay phone bills, get contracts, send money to their families, receive money from abroad, etc etc. So really, it's a madhouse. And it could work well. Except for one guy. He is my mortal enemy. Granted, most things in Cape Verde run a little slower than usual, and I'm fine with that. I can just relax and let things go at their own pace, and it rarely bothers me these days. But this guy... oh man. Nadia and I joke that he is the most useless human being in the world. Sometimes, even when there is no one else there, he will literally lie to you about something to avoid completing some task. He's the reason it took 6 weeks to get a phone installed. Nadia asked him for a printout of our phone bill last week, and he said it was impossible without filling out a request for the main office in Praia. Two days ago, I asked someone else (the manager, who is awesome and supremely helpful), and the detailed bill was in my hand 45 seconds later. Today, I was 5th or 6th in line to pick up a box, and it took over an hour. Just because the simplest tasks take him 15 to 20 minutes. It's really pretty amazing.

On the positive side, my mom's package was filled with good books. I recently became fascinated with Arab history, so I now have 3 books on it, dating from thousands of years ago until the 90s. Also, Nadia got two cool books recently: on reading Hebrew and Arabic. She has a personal goal to read religious texts (Bible, Torah, and Koran) in their original languages, which I think is badass. So between that and the Anglo-Saxon grammar book I found in the PC office, we are nerding it up hardcore in Sal Rei. Who loves other languages? I do.

Also, it RAINED a couple days ago. Seriously. It never even rains here during the rainy season. It's only the 3rd time I've seen precipitation here, and the first time since September. But there was a full on thunderstorm. It moved to the west of the island, but I could see the lightning out over the water, and then the rain caught us. I discovered that the ceiling in my room leaks, too. Hurrah for buckets.

Mostly I just wanted to vent about the post office. OH, but I have another story. I don't know if I've ever mentioned the Chinese loja phenomenon before, but here it is: Cape Verde has a decent number of Chinese immigrants here, because they are able to import inexpensive everyday items for really cheap and sell them here. For instance, there are two lojas (loja is just a store) here in Vila, and they are always packed with people. Someone from São Vicente told me that there used to be Chinese restaurants around, but they all closed when the families decided to open stores instead, because you can make so much more money. Anyway, the point of this is that the woman who owns one of the lojas in town came into the CEJ the other day with her daughter, who had just arrived from China last week. She apparently hates Boa Vista and wants to go back to China. I don't really blame her, considering she doesn't know Creole or Portuguese, and this sure as hell isn't what she's used to. So her mother asked me to let her into my English class, so she can at least do something and maybe make some friends. I agreed, so she's been to a few classes. So on Wednesday, we're having a little class discussion on AIDS, and she's being really quiet. My friend Walter (whose English is excellent) was wondering what the AIDS situation was like in China, so we asked her if she knew. Conversation in brief:

"*girl's name*, do you know what the AIDS crisis is like in China? How do the rates compare with what we just read?"
"I don't know, really."
"Oh ok."
"I don't care about this."
"Um. Ok. Why?"
"Because it is not about me, so why should I care?"
(Jaws drop all around room. Stunned silence follows.)
"Oh. Well. I... Uh... Does anybody have anything to add to that? No? Ok, um... wow. I guess class is over."

Gee, good question. Why should I care? I mean, it's only the largest epidemic in history, killing millions of people per year, but I guess that's no big deal. I personally don't have HIV, so I guess I can just ignore it. Gosh, life is so much simpler now. I guess I could have taken the opportunity to discuss why she should in fact care, but the way she phrases it was pretty confrontational and unpleasant, so I just let it go rather than start an argument.

Ok, well the wind has picked up. Tonight, I teach two classes in a row. At 9 pm, I am free to spend the weekend windsurfing. The storms have been increasing the swell at the outside of the bay, so maybe I can play on the waves a bit.

Well, this past weekend was another to go down in the annals of history. Or at least the annals of this month. Shon, my coworker, invited Nadia and I to Estância de Baixo again, only this time for a grelha in the desert. Nadia and Shon's girlfriend, Elisabeth, have class at the same time Saturday morning, so we went back with her after she did some grocery shopping. We put together a few coolers of food and drinks and walked about 25 minutes out of town to where the desert begins. The Deserto da Viana is weird: it starts and ends really suddenly, and it's pretty small. One minute, you're walking through fields of brown dirt and lava rocks, and then all of a sudden, there are huge sand dunes that go for a few miles and then end just as suddenly. But when you're actually there in the desert, it might as well be the Sahara if you can't see over the next few dunes.

So we set up camp underneath a big tree that gave us shade from the sun. Someone had set up a grilling pit there, but we had to find it under the sand first and dig it up. We grilled fish and some chicken legs that Beti had marinated in something close to liquid heaven because good god damn they were delicious. We had an awful lot of wine and beer, which we polished off while we ate. After the meal, we struck off into the desert to enjoy it. I don't know what the original goal was, but it turned into a booze-fueled romp in the sand dunes. (pics here. The album is public, no need for an account) In the end, we made it home just after sunset, exhausted and covered in sand. I am still finding small deposits of sand here and there. So we relaxed at Shon's and then headed home, only to find... Yep, water's gone. I did the best I could to wash off the sand with a bottle of water, but I still woke up with a few fistfuls in my bed. No worries though, the water is back as of this morning.

Sunday, I woke up and immediately headed to the bay, obviously. Unfortunately, there was a lot less wind out on the water than there was on, say, my street, so the day wasn't particularly good for speed. Still, I cruised around a bit and even caught a few waves. But like a jackass, I managed to get in front of a big one that carried me halfway across the bay and right into shore, because I never bothered to think about how to get off a wave that big with almost no wind to move myself. I looked about 90% retarded. But right until the end, it was just about the most fun I've had on a board. The wind and swell picks up on Wednesday. I am addicted.

I really do have the best post in the Peace Corps. Not only can I play in the desert and windsurf on the same weekend, but I have free internet to write about it afterwards.

Ho hum, it's been another slow week. I started my English class, which is going shockingly well. My students are all mid-twenties to 40s and 50s, so everyone is pretty well educated and most people have reasonably good English. One guy of course speaks nearly perfectly, leading to the question "Why the hell did you sign up for my English class?" No, actually, I'm really glad he's there, because he breaks the occasional awkward silence with a well-formed sentence, and I feel less like an ass. The class is all reading and discussion based, so I'm not bogged down planning grammar lessons. If there is a grammar question, I just answer it on the fly. So this week I had a burst of genius with an assignment idea to kill two birds with one stone. I've been meaning to update the wikipedia entry on Boa Vista and Sal Rei, because they both SUCK. I mean it. Go look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boa_Vista%2C_Cape_Verde The facts are only vaguely accurate and some of the sentences don't make sense. But why write it all myself when I can just get my class of 15 perfectly willing students to do it instead? They practice English and inform the world about their home at the same time. I'm so smart. Look for that stuff to be posted on wikipedia in a couple weeks. There will be entries on Boa Vista, Sal Rei, Rabil, and João Galego.

I just have one thing to vent about, and it's sort of a revisit of something I have mentioned before: the music here. I feel like I'm living in a musical black hole. Anybody who knows me knows that I have a musical fixation, and anybody who knows me really well also knows that I am a music snob. So you can imagine how I feel about a culture that only likes two kinds of music: slow music with an easily discernible beat, and fast music with an easily discernable beat. This is no problem at a club, or from a passing car, or even on someone's stereo every once in a while. About 20 minutes ago, someone came in and sat the computer next to me. He had earbuds in, but I could still hear his music as if he had speakers. While waiting for his ears to start bleeding, I couldn't help but notice that his music was just some generic vaguely R&B-ish American imported crap. They love it. They eat it up. The American music that makes it over here is hands down the bottom of the barrel. It is the most irrelevant, talentless pop garbage you could imagine. Linkin Park is experiencing the zenith of their popularity here. I am not kidding. Linkin Park. Few bands receive more contempt from me (I think only Creed and James Blunt currently top them. Creed has held the number one position for 6 or 7 years now. Oh wait, Good Charlotte might make it, too.). On the rap front, 50 Cent and Jay Z still hold sway, though Akon is also inexplicably huge. I continue to try to introduce people to good hip hop, but I mostly get lukewarm responses, unless the song has a really really catchy chorus, or gun shot sounds mixed into the beat (note: a gun shot sound effect, especially if it is incorporated into the beat, is a surefire way to get me to hate your rap song instantly. it's such a pathetic gimmick). It's an uphill battle I suppose, and most people just don't care much for rock and roll. However, bizarrely enough, the Scorpions are somehow wildly popular in Cape Verde. Yes, those Scorpions. Weird, right? Anyway, sometimes I just can't stand to hear one more generic beat and repetitive pseudo-soul chorus and I have to go plug myself into some Medeski or Led Zep. I have never loved my iPod more.

On to something less stressful. I went to Estância de Baixo on Saturday, where my coworker Shon lives with his girlfriend, Elisabeth, who is a math teacher at Nadia's high school. They are great people, easily my favorite couple here on Boa Vista. Beti cooked up some cachupa (Cape Verde's national dish, if I've never mentioned it: beans, corn, sausage, onion, pork etc all in a big stew-ish thing) and fish, and we had lunch with another guy, confusingly also named Shon. The food was really good, and they busted out with an unbelievable amount of wine. My Creole gets much better when I've been drinking, so the conversation flowed in equal proportion to the alcohol. There was a big barbeque going on right across the street, where they were cooking up a (wait for it) donkey. This is not a lie. I don't know why this is even remotely appealing, but apparently this donkey needed to die and they ate it. Yummy. In much the same way rotten cabbage and sweaty socks are yummy. I wasn't offered, so I didn't try it, but I suppose I'd give it a shot. Anyway. The whole day was great, and I was reminded how different the rest of Cape Verde is than Sal Rei. This town feels more like the world I'm used to: people are nice enough, friendly and easy to talk to, but nobody goes out of their way to hang out with you or befriend you. It's only in places like Estância and João Galego where just showing up in town is reason enough for everyone to learn your name and be your new best friend. There are only 2-300 people in Estância, making it a tenth the size of Vila, so it makes sense. In any event, every friendly gesture in Cape Verde comes with a friendly beer, ponche, grogue, or wine, so by the time I found myself a ride home at about 9 ish, I was pretty far gone. I ended up spending Sunday entirely indoors, partly due to recovery and partly due to a lack of wind. No wind, no surfing.

Ok, no more typing for me. I stupidly cut my finger last night trying to make my fan stop making sqeaky noises. There was much blood and discomfort.

Life is quiet. After the initial sense of limbo when IST was cancelled, I’ve more or less found things to do for the next few weeks. Most importantly and excitingly, I have officially purchased tickets for São Vicente for February, to spend Carnaval in Mindelo. Nadia and I are both going, as are many other PCVs, so it should be a wild time. After Carnaval, I’m taking the boat over to Santo Antão to visit Natawnee in Paúl.

Predictably, I spent the weekend windsurfing. I won’t bore you with the details, but I moved up a couple meters in sail size, and the difference in speed is awesome.

I start teaching English classes tonight. This class is an advanced class, for people who already speak English. I don’t know quite what to expect right off the bat, so I have to spend the first couple classes trying to figure out what level they are so I can work with it from there. Because of the IST fuckup, I now have to take several breaks: one for my internet class (can’t teach both at the same time – it’s complicated), one for Carnaval, and one right at the end for the rescheduled IST. I’d be lying if I said I was excited about the class, because I really don’t care to teach English. I’ve never done it before, and there seems to be a lot of pressure on me to do it well. Then again, I’ve never done any of this before, so who am I to complain?

The library project seems to have come to a screeching halt. Nobody has so much as touched a book in there for weeks. There is still no organization, no plans for organization, and most of the books remain sealed away. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know why anymore. I don’t know if they just don’t know what to do, or if they just don’t feel like doing it. By “they,” I mean the rest of the staff here. Apparently the president of the câmara is pretty annoyed that it is not up and running yet. So we are having a meeting today to discuss getting it on track. I don’t know how much help I should give, because if they already have a set plan, then I’d rather just let it happen. On the other hand, I am not sure that they have as much experiences with public libraries as I do, having grown up as a little nerd-boy. Hmm.

Otherwise, life is exceptionally quiet. I am going through what seems to be a pretty universal experience with all volunteers. I am bored and restless. This is the longest I have ever stayed in one place in ages. I mean, I never leave town. There is nowhere else to go. Transport even to Rabil or Estância de Baixo is really expensive and there is nothing there that isn’t also here in Vila. On a bored weeknight in CT, I could at least drive down to New Haven and meet people for pizza and beer. Here, all I can do is grab a book. I guess it’s a nice change of pace from the east coast, but I can’t help but get fidgety. I am looking forward to February, not just to have a good time and see other volunteers, but just for the chance it represents to get off Boa Vista for a week. Island fever strikes hard. If it weren’t for windsurfing and the general camaraderie of François’ place, I think it would be a lot harder to deal with.

Interesting. I managed to write a page about nothing.